


Treat you better

by RedheadShenanigans



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dean Winchester Saves Castiel, Domestic Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, No Smut, One Shot, Pain, Physical Abuse, Prostitution, Protective Dean Winchester, Short One Shot, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 07:24:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedheadShenanigans/pseuds/RedheadShenanigans
Summary: Dean is a roadie for a band and Cas hasn't turned in for his shift.Michael, Cas' abusive boyfriend/douche is in town and the whole crew are worried. Michael leaves more than bad feelings, he leaves broken ribs and black bruises in his wake. Cas isn't back, the more time passes the more Dean worries.He's hoping and praying that the guy he's secretly in love with isn't dying in a gutter somewhere and then he gets a call, Cas is in trouble and Dean is the only person who can help.





	Treat you better

Dean set up the sound system with his crew, they’d been there since 4 am and Cas still wasn’t back to manage the wiring. As his stomach twisted, Garth yelled over to go help with some crates. 

“Hey, you good?” 

Dean smiled tightly, “Yeah, this tour is killing me.” 

“Not as young as you used to be huh?” Garth laughed and Dean forced a chuckle. 

Spot on. In his twenties he'd been fine but hitting his mid-thirties was a game changer. No matter how hard he hit the gym the gruelling schedules felt harder every year. This year though he was managing all the other roadies as well. Keeping everyone on track was its own heap of stressful shit. 

“Dean? Have you seen Cas? We need to start running the cables. He’s like our own personal angel, it always goes wrong without him.” Ruby called.

Dean grimaced inside but kept his face straight, “I think he’s running late, start and he’ll fix it when he gets in.” 

Ruby paused, “He’s with Michael again isn’t he?” 

Dean shrugged and they stared at each other longer than was polite, longer than was necessary. 

“Fuck Dean.”

“I don’t know for sure… he didn’t come back to the bus last night and…”

“…and we’re in Chicago… fucking West Coast… if anything happens to him…”

Dean pulled her into a hug as Garth looked on, anger played on his brow as Dean replied, “I know… I fucking know Rubes.”

They were like a family on the road and the crew had worked together for years on the same gigs. They adored Cas, he was amazing. Dean had more than a crush… far more but Cas, he always pulled away. This thing he had with Michael was fucking toxic. 

Every time we were anywhere near the West Coast of America this happened. Cas' rich a-hole of an almost boyfriend/abusive a-hole would fly in his private jet and Cas would disappear. Sometimes he was strong and didn't go. Sometimes Dean could convince him he was better off and to just hang out on the bus or in the hotel. Then there were days like this. Days where Dean wondered if they’d find him in a hospital with bruises. Last time he tried to hide them as working out in the gym pain. He wondered if today would be the day the cops call him to pick Cas up? Or maybe it’d be the day they called him to identify Cas’ bloody bruised corpse. 

Dean always thought the worst because it had been bad before and his brain just went there now. That police scenario had happened a few times. Maybe Cas dropped the charges or maybe Michael paid the cops off but one way or another they ended up back here. Weeks or possibly months down the line but always back here. This was the first time they’d been anywhere near the states this tour and the first fucking date here they were. It was nearly 7 am and the panic was rising, he was usually back by now or had called. Dean tried calling his phone again, nothing, straight to voicemail. He did what he always did because he was a fucking sap. Cas’ voice laughed and told him to leave a message and he did, every damn time, just to hear that laugh. Dude, he was so fucking gone. 

By midday, Dean was freaking out so bad he couldn't eat. Half of the crew were asking about Cas and the other half if Dean was okay. 

“Dean?” Ruby said approaching wearing the crews black on black, “I’m worried, like… so fucking worried.”

Ruby had taken Cas under her wing when he’d started and she felt responsible for introducing him to Michael. Her old crew had been a bit rough around the edges and Michael was a dealer. They had gone for drinks and Cas had fallen for the bad boy. 

“Yeah… I’ll give it a few more hours and then start calling hospitals and local cops okay?”

Tears filled her eyes but a nod followed, they all knew that this insanity would end one way or another. They had all simply hoped Cas would come to his senses. 

“Oh, Dean?” Ruby added, “Every time this happens I wish he was with you. I know it doesn't help but I really try to make myself believe he’ll see what he’s missing.”

Dean told himself he wouldn’t get upset, “Thanks.” 

That was the only thing he could say because he’d tried, he tried being subtle, he’d tried, really. Asking Cas out was hard because the dishevelled piece of gorgeous always smiled and refused. He said that Dean was too good for him. It was infuriating and also the sweetest thing known to man. Dean knew he could treat Cas better. He knew he could give him all the love and everything he was missing, he just wanted a shot.

Time passed at a crawl and before he knew it they were prepping sound levels for the band. Dean was rearranging cables because they’d been wired wrong and checking them again. Work consumed him for hours as Crowley and the Demons rocked the stage. The band were amazing but come 11 pm as they started to wind down Dean remembered his promise to Ruby. It was time to start making calls. The crew could do what they needed to; they were in Chicago for two more nights so there wasn’t much to do. 

As he started to dial the phone rang, Cas. 

“Cas!” he barked, “Where are you?”

A high female voice competed with heavy bass for volume, “Is this Dean?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

The woman became silent and then came back, “Jo, my names Jo. 

“Jo, where are you? How did you get this phone?” he asked softly, she seemed very reluctant to talk to him.

“Castiel, he said to call you… Michael… he took him into a room with a few other johns and he said to call you and you’d come.” 

Dean wanted to scream and cry all at the same time but he took a breath and asked, "Where are you, Jo? It’s okay I’ll come.”

“He said you’d take me if I hid the phone. I just want to go back to Iowa,” she cried but it was a whisper. “I just want to go home.”

“Sure Jo, sure anything, where are you?” 

“We’re next to a club downtown; bring some people with you… and maybe a gun.” 

Dean scowled as he heart raced in his chest, she gave him the name of the location and googled it. Ten minutes away, he needed to move. 

“Ruby, Garth, get the guys and tell Benny to call his people, we’re going to need the backup.”

“What’s happening?” Ruby asked, “Is it Cas?”

Dean nodded, “It’s bad.”

They scattered and were ready in five minutes, Benny called his guys and then they were on route. Dean had been doing martial arts since he was a kid; his dad was a kickboxing semi-pro. A fight wasn’t something he was afraid of and he was going to get his friend. 

They piled into cars and drove the several miles to what was defiantly a brothel. The club next door was filling, the queue steadily growing with patrons.

Dean was out and bolting past the girls at the door. Two flights of stairs later a rough looking bouncer/goon glared at him. Dean didn't stop, just walked over and kicked the guy in the face. The heap of gangster landed with a slap and the move had his chosen family staring both impressed and shocked. 

“Dude, what the fuck was that?” 

Dean grinned as he pushed open the door, “Told you, my dad’s into kickboxing.”

Ruby laughed, “Yeah but that was, well, fuck me sideways and call me Larry. I was not expecting that.”

Benny boys had guns, just in case. They moved through the halls and Dean asked for Jo. A sick looking girl pointed them in the right direction. The room was little more than squalor, a stained mattress covered a third of the space. Jo was huddled in the corner wearing underwear and clutching Cas’ phone like the lifeline it was.

“Jo honey?” Dean asked softly and she glanced up. Whatever drugs they were feeding her were wearing off and she cried slow, silent tears. 

“Dean?” 

He nodded and she pointed across the hall, “He’s in there.”

“Ruby, take her to the car, now.” Dean moved to the door. Benny’s guys went first because they had guns and with a hard kick the rotting door was gone. 

Guns were drawn as they entered. Dean took in the scene and wished he hadn’t. Michael was naked, so were the other two men who circled the filthy mattress. Cas was terrified but seemed out of it, had they drugged him? Fury fired through Dean’s body, he was murderous. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Michael asked. 

They all froze because none had expected an ambush and their guns were by their clothes under the window. 

“I’m here for him fuck face.” Dean growled as the guys and Garth covered his back, “Back up right fucking now.”

Dean watched them until he was close enough to Cas to get him. The beautiful man was naked and face down on the mattress, his body was a mess. Dean couldn’t see an inch on his back that wasn’t bruised or bloody, that included his ass and legs. Tears threatened through the anger but he held it. Touching Cas’ face was the only place he could think of to try that wouldn’t hurt, it was the only place free of bruises.

“Cas…” he said over the shouting of the men behind him. It was escalating and they needed to get out. 

“Dean?” a tight whisper came and filled him with hope.

“Hey, I came. Can you walk?”

A tear slipped from Cas eye and Dean held back a sob. Fuck. The shake of his head was slight and Dean knew he’d have to carry him. 

“I’m gonna pick you up okay?” Dean asked and Cas nodded again.

Dean grabbed a gross blanket and wrapped it around Cas' trembling, decimated flesh. It was a careful process and Cas cried out several times in pain. Once in a cradle of his arms, the exhausted man passed out. The guys averted their eyes but rage at the treatment of their friend was a cloud filling the air. 

“You can’t take my whore, I own it.” Michael spat. 

Dean stopped, glanced at Benny and growled, “Take him, take him to the car. Garth, go with him.”

They didn’t argue which was a sign that Dean was well past rage into fury. The guys with the guns nodded, they knew what Dean was going to do next. 

Crossing over to the tall, handsome piece of shit Dean stopped and growled, "He is not yours, he’s mine and I am keeping him.”

They laughed and Dean lost it. The first kick threw Michael into a wall and left him stunned. The second gave him a broken nose. The third forced him into a blood-filled coughing fit. The fourth left him with broken ribs and concussion. 

Dean's breath came hard. He turned to the gang members, “I don’t care what happens to them but make sure you burn whatever I touched.”

They nodded and the other two men started to yell and beg. Dean grinned as he left the room; it was not a pleasant expression. As the gunshots sounded he passed through the loud hallways with that evil smile and everyone moved. Benny waited in the SUV, Cas lay in the back with the crews' spare sweats on and that did it, he broke. 

Dean pulled Cas into his lap and it woke him. 

“Dean…” 

“Cas.” Tears flowed freely.

A broken hand brushed the wet from his cheek and it made him cry harder. 

“I’m sorry Dean… I should have called someone else.”

Dean looked into those perfect blue eyes and said, “No. I’m the only person you should call. I love you, please let me take care of you now?”

Cas cried as he nodded, “Okay Dean.”

“Good, now sleep. I’m taking you home.”

“Dean?” His angel whispered, “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick bit of inspiration, hope you like it. Based on 'Treat you better' by Shawn Mendes
> 
> Thank for reading.  
> Check out my Tumblr - tumblr.com/blog/redheadshenanigans


End file.
